The present invention is directed to hangers and labels having hangers for suspending goods or packaging.
In administering certain medicines and pharmaceuticals, it is necessary to suspend a bottle or other package containing the pharmaceutical product from a hanger or like support. In particular, intravenously administered fluids are typically contained in a bottle which is suspended from an extended hanger to provide gravity induced flow of the fluid. It may be desirable to suspend articles other than medical and pharmaceutical bottles as well.
Generally, the present invention is directed to a hanger and a label incorporating the same which provides enhanced reliability, performance and usability, as well as improved convenience and cost-effectiveness in manufacture and handling.
The label may include a hanger having a folded configuration which allows the label to be unfolded from a relatively compact stored position to a relatively long hanging position.
The label may include a hanger having at least one attachment portion and a hanging portion defining an opening for receiving a support. The attachment portion is coated with a substantially permanent first adhesive suitable to securely adhere the attachment portion to an intended substrate. The intended substrate may be an article such as an IV bottle or the intended substrate may be a base label. The hanging portion of the hanger is coated with a less adherent, non-permanent second adhesive. The second adhesive is effective to temporarily adhere the hanging portion to the intended substrate, but allows the hanging portion to be pulled away from the substrate, preferably without damaging the substrate, when the user desires to employ the hanger. More preferably, the second adhesive is a xe2x80x9cfugitive adhesivexe2x80x9d which adheres to the intended substrate but which, upon removal from the substrate, becomes substantially non-adherent.
The label may include a base label having a lower surface, a base adhesive disposed on the lower surface for affixing the label to a substrate, and a hanger as described above. The hanger may have two or more interconnected legs defining an opening therebetween, each of the legs having a respective end, each of the ends of the legs being adhered to the base label.
The hanger may be foldable about the ends between a stored position wherein the hanger lies adjacent an upper surface of the base label and a hanging position wherein the hanger is folded away from the base label for receiving the support through the opening.
The hanger may include first and second superimposed layers. Preferably, each of the first and second layers is formed of polymeric film. Each of the first and second layers is preferably substantially transparent.
The ends of the legs may be secured to an upper surface of the base label by an anchoring adhesive. Further, each of the first and second layers may extend beyond the hanger with the hanger defined by cut lines formed through the first and second layers.
The base label may have an upper surface with indicia disposed on the upper surface of the base label. Moreover, at least a portion of the indicia may underlie the hanger when the hanger lies adjacent the upper surface of the base label in a stored position. Preferably, each of the layers of the hanger is formed from a transparent material, whereby the indicia is visible through the hanger when the hanger is in the stored position.
The present invention is further directed to a method for forming a label as described above for displaying information regarding a container and suspending the container from a support.
The present invention is further directed to a hanger as described above.
Objects of the present invention will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art from a reading of the Figures and the detailed description of the preferred embodiments which follow, such description being merely illustrative of the present invention.